Public health officials said Tuesday that five confirmed cases of measles in southern Manitoba are connected to an outbreak in Ontario.
All five people live in the same home, and all were in contact with people confirmed to have measles while travelling in Ontario recently.
The five have been asked to isolate at home, a provincial news release said.
As of Jan. 29, 81 cases of measles — 54 confirmed and 27 probable — have been reported in Ontario since 2024.
People who were at Reinland Mennonite Church in Winkler (Sunday school and main service) between 9:15 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. on Jan. 26 might have been exposed to the measles virus.
Health officials said people at various locations at Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg this Friday might also have been exposed. The sites were the first-floor children’s laboratory and waiting rooms of Clinic X and Clinic W between 11:30 a.m. and 2 p.m., Orange Bison Zone Level 1 in and around Guildy’s Eatery and adjacent corridors from noon to 3 p.m., and the fourth-floor cardiology clinic and the waiting room in Children’s Hospital between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m.
Public health asked anyone who was in these locations during these times to ensure they are up to date with a vaccine — either measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) or measles, mumps, rubella and varicella (MMRV).
A public health investigation is ongoing, and more exposure locations might be announced.
“As more contacts are identified, individuals may be asked to isolate and consider vaccination,” the release said.
It is unlikely people born before 1970 or who have ever received a measles vaccine will get the disease, the release noted.
fpcity@freepress.mb.ca